Tradesman dispute over payment

[MadaCup]

Before I start I'm happy to be told I'm wrong with this but looking for a 2nd opinion.

We've had a painter in recently and his work has been very good to be fair, however when we asked for the final bill it's been more than we were lead to believe.

Without going in to specifics, it comes down to the following question:

• If you are paying a day rate for a tradesman and they leave at 1pm (we know on at least one of those days he was going to another job), do you pay them for the full day?

We were quoted 5 days (Monday to Friday) at £130 per day. In the end they came Monday all day, Tuesday they left at 1pm and Saturday they are coming for a half day to finish off. They are asking for 6 full days between them (£130 * 6). Should they be paid for days they are not here? They also tried to double charge us for a separate piece of work which is why we think they are trying it on a bit.

I think their quote was misleading to start with but our expectations have been set by a carpenter we used recently who charged us half a day in similar circumstances. He was going to another job after and therefore his day rate was split between 2 jobs, he only charged us for the work he was doing.

 

[Gerrydelasel]

We've had a painter in recently and his work has been very good

So it's just one man?

They are asking for 6 full days between them.

There are several men? Confused.

 

[MadaCup]

Sorry I didn't make that clear. Originally it was 5 days (Monday to Friday) at £130 but then 2 of them turned up at a rate of £130 per day each.

The real issue is whether you pay them for a full day when they finish at 1pm?

 

[Bosswhite]

Still confused, Do you have it in writing that it was only going to take Five Days ?(One man £130 Day Rate, Total £ 650)

or are you now saying that two men turned up per day @ £ 130 per day Total £ 1.300 ??

 

[misterhelpful]

From my understanding, you were expecting one man for five days but got two men for one full day and two half days, so they are trying to charge you for three full days each, even though the total hours only add up to two whole days each??

EDIT:

I think I misunderstood the situation when I stated the above.

 

[Adam_151]

While you could perhaps argue that the bill should be £130 x 5 no matter how its worded...

I.e. = He has given you a price for the job based on it taking 5 man days to do
OR he has given you a day rate and reckons it will take 5 man days, and the job did get done in 5 man days, albeit spread out a bit

... both lead to the same conclusion. HOWEVER.......

You could also take the viewpoint that if you are happy with the work, £780 is a good price for a weeks worth of work from a skilled bloke... in fact I struggle to see how its even possible unless its cash in hand! So perhaps should just be paid, or you can quibble it, upset him, and he won't work for you again and you'll end up paying a lot more to someone else!

 

[TonyW2]

I do not see why you should have to pay for hours not worked, if there was a definite agreement that the price would be calculated after completion at £130 per man day with the 5 days being just an estimate of the likely time needed.
However, how long is a man day?
In this case it looks like 4 to 4.5 days if based on a 7 hour day have been worked.
You could stick to this base but if the work has been well done and in a reasonably energetic manner, then settle on the 5 days originally indicated, that seemed to be considered reasonable by both parties and preserve a working relationship.9

 

[misterhelpful]

OK, I think I have the gist of it now. You were expecting to pay 2 men for 5 full days from Mon-Fri. They only worked half a day on Tuesday and then went to another job. So ,effectively, they are making up the half day missed on Tuesday by working Friday.

If that is the case, then they haven't lost any money for working half day Tuesday as they worked somewhere else. The fact that they have to make the time up on Saturday is their fault so they shouldn't be paid for 6 days each UNLESS it's because you asked them to finish early on Tuesday, meaning they have to work on a Saturday to make up for your request.
I did the former on many occasions and bit the bullet by working on a Saturday or Sunday to make up for it without expecting payment - because that was my choice to leave early to do another job. I did the latter by charging for my time on the weekend if a customer had asked me to leave early one day - because that was the customer's choice, so anything I earned on another job was a bonus for me.

 

[Chri5]

Might the half day not worked be a cover for work time off site for you?

Stuff like using and collecting from suppliers and the initial meet up and chat on site, pre work.

 

[Mr. Clueless]

What the hell, i'll take a stab at it too....

So you thought you were going to pay 1 man for 5 days work @ £130 per day = £650
What you got was 2 men all day on Monday wanting £130 each.
They both worked until 1pm on Tuesday (so you could consider this a half day) @ £130 each per day (so that'd be £130 for the total that day since they only worked a half day & were leaving to another job).

You specified that they worked Monday all day & mentioned Tuesday, but you didn't mention Wednesday-Thursday-Friday so i can only assume they didn't turn up on those days.

And they're both going to turn up on Saturday to 'finish off' (1 hour? 2 hours? 6 hours?). Let's call it a half day since many people don't seem to eat in to their Saturday afternoons (yeah i know some do) so that's another £130.

So....

Monday = £130 x2 = £260
Tuesday = £130 (since they did half a day)
Saturday = £130 (i'll assume they're doing a half day)

Total: £520.

 

[geraldthehamster]

We were quoted 5 days (Monday to Friday) at £130 per day.

Are you saying they gave you a quotation for £650? If it was a quotation, not an estimate, then that's what you should be paying.

 

[TonyW2]

Can't have a fixed price quote and a day rate, (othetwise you are also entitled to supply of 5 days of work.)

 

[chubberoo]

Everyone in the same boat trying to work out what you mean. My understanding.

5 days at £130 = £650

What you got.

1 full day for 2 men 2 half days for 2 men, so in total 2 full days for 2 men? 1pm, if started after 8am is a half day for me, as I'm sure they would have stopped between those times for a break. If you want to be picky work out what they worked into hours and pay that